Data centers that support one or more businesses, factories or residential areas typically comprise one or more racks or cabinets filled with interconnection sites for optical fibers and fiber optic cables. In a typical installation, fiber optic cables that include multiple optical fibers from an external source (these are often known as “outside plant” or “OSP” fibers) enter the cabinet and are spliced together with individual optical fibers known as “pigtails.” Splicing typically occurs in a splice tray or similar component that includes multiple splice sites. The pigtail fibers are then connected within the cabinet to standard termination sites. The termination sites include termination ports that connect optically with “jumper” optical fibers that exit the rack or cabinet to supply data or other information in optical form to the remainder of the building or site. The termination sites can be provided in a number of forms, including fiber distribution cartridges, fiber distribution modules, multi-position adapter couplers and/or bezels.
Fiber management shelves are often provided a front door for providing selective access to the termination sites and elements near the front of the shelf and/or a rear door providing selective access to the splice panel and elements at the rear of the shelf. These doors may be opened and closed as needed. However, in some cases, the doors are provided with latches or other mechanisms that must be manipulated with one or both hands in order to open the doors and/or fasten them securely. These latches can add to the complexity of fiber management shelves, and the latches on one fiber management shelf may interfere with the operation of the doors of adjacent fiber management shelves when the shelves are arranged one above another in a rack. Other types of latches may require a significant amount of force to release, and thus a user might have to pull forcefully on the door equipped with such a latch, possibly jarring the shelf and affecting the operation of the sensitive fiber optic components contained therein. It is also possible to provide fiber management shelves with doors that do not include latches, but this can lead to the undesirable condition of the doors coming open at unwanted times and failing to provide projection for the components they are intended to cover. It would therefore be desirable to provide a fiber management shelf with latchable doors that can be latched and unlatched with one hand, without pulling on the shelf, and that do not interfere with the operation of the doors of adjacent fiber management shelves stacked above or below the fiber management shelf equipped with such latches.